Liquid ore separation.



P. I. DU PONT.

LIQUID ORE SEPARATION.

APPLICATION FILED 1330.1, 1909.

1,014,624. Patented Jan. 9, 1912.

2 SHEETEPSHEET'I.

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INVENTOI? P. I. DU PONT.

LIQUID ORE SEPARATION. APPLICATION FILED DBO.1, 1909.

Patented Jam-9, 1912.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

IIVVEIVTOR mam W W/ TNESS E 6:

To all whom/it may concern:

. E TATE PATENT OFFC'E.

manners '1. nu ron'r, or WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.

LIQUID oar. SEPARATION.

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Be it'known that I, FnAriorsI. DU'PONT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wilmington, county of Newcastle, and State of Delaware, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Liquid Ore Separation, of which the following is a full, clear, and

exact description.

My inyention consists in cert-ain improvements in gravity separation of sol1ds.

My invention consists in passing the material to be separated into a bath formed of a salt, which salt is in a liquid, semi-liquid, or fused condition. The salt may bein a liquid or semi-liquid, condition, one which requires heat to render it liquid or semi- I liquid, or to maintain the salt in a liquid or ized, condensed and arating'tank.

F and c being'aninclined from the other end of the central horizontal portion. In this tank bromid of antimony,

v to provide in the tank the heating semi-liquid condition. The salt should be anhydrous and volatilizable. As an example, I have used anhydrous antimony bromid. In practice, 1- form a bath of this salt, into which the mixture to be separated is passed into this liquid, where it is separated into its constituents. heavier constituents are separately removed and anyof the salt adhering thereto volatilreturned. to .the sep-.

I will now describe an apparatus with which my invention may be carried out.

Figure 1 is a vertical section through a separator and treating furnace partially shown in elevation. Fig. 2 is-a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-'3 ofFig- 1. Fig'4 is a'section on line 4-4 ofv Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a section on 'line 5-5 of Fig.1. Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the condenser showing the float valve .in elevation. Fig. 7 is a horizontal section of the condenser. Fig. 8-is a crosssection of the guide which passes through the furnace. 4

a, b, 0,.is a tank, a beinga central horizontal portion, 7) being an inclined portion at one end of the central horizontal portion, portion proj ecting is a salt, for instance, as the separatings'alt.

If thesalt to be used is one which is not a liquid at ordinary temperature, I prefer coils d.

In this tank are the conveyer chains e, be-

tween which are flights formed of rectangular plates.

These conveyer chains are driven by;the sprocket wheels 9 and are arate, the heavier The higher and pass beyond of the. sprocket g, the rollers Z1 and the position of the rollers 2'- are such that in the portion. veyer is at the upper portion of the liquid and the other section of the lower portion of the liquid. The conveyer travels in the directionof the arrow and at a slow speed. I

. In order to prevent the deleterious efl'ect of any fuming where the liquid fumes are all at. ordinary temperatures, it is advisable in racticeto provide a cover 70 for the tank. TlllS cover is provided'with an opening I about. central of the horizontal section a of the tank, through which opening the mate rial is fed-into the-tank.

. By specific gravity the constituents sepfalling to the bottom and the lighter remaining in the upper portion. The conveyer, which in its travel moves quite slowly, in the lower section, by means of the flights catches the heavier constitu-' ents, drawing them up the incline I). The salt carried byhthe flights, when the flights t e will pass ofi constituents, although the salt has drained off, will still be impregnated with it, and will be carried to a oint where the chute 1' opens, through which they may be discharged. The flights on the upper section of the chain will catch and carry with them the light-constituents, carrying them up the incline e, and when the flights have reached a point above the liquid the same will pass from them. The inclined bottom 27 and roller E will prevent the escape of the solids until the flights have passed around the when when, being uncovered, they aline with the chute 10.

In order toremove,any salt carried by the constituents and recover the same I use the following construction. The material may be carried or hopper be provided with a slide 0 normally closed and operated by an eccentric p,-the operation of which allows graded quantities to pass out of the mouth of the-hopper, g is an iron band caused to travel around'the rollers'rby appropriate means. Its movement. should be quite slow; This band 9 passes through a cast iron passage-s, shown in section,F1g. 8; This cast iron passage 8 Patented Jan. 9,1912. Application m December 1, 190a. Serial No. 530,761.

a; of the tank one section of the conthe conveyer is at liquid level of the tank, from the flights, and' the solid guided by the rollers h and i. The diameter fed from the chutes j into a m; The bottom of this hopper may may be heated by any appropriate means. The hottest parti-of this furnace is in the center and from that part extend two'pipes M which lead to a condenser 41. From the mid- I 5 dle part of this condenser the vapors are arranged that in the hottest part of the re covery apparatus there is no circulation in either direction and practically a dead space. The purpose of this is that the circulation of air may not' interfere with the heating efi'ect which is desired.

It will be noted'that the pipes' e deliver the air into parts of the apparatus cooler than those from which the air passes by the pipes u. This also avoidsa loss of heat and ing hot pieces of ore to a; draft which has 'been freed to a great extent from thevapor's 3o of the liquid which it is desired to recover.

The band 9, passing through the cast iron conduit 8, would, without t-heconstruct-io'n I described, carry a certain amount-of air with it, which, if it was allowed to" pass throu h freely, might resultin a possible loss 0 salt. By properly arranging and adjusting the dampers 2, an exact balance, may be obtained .and thus pi'event any outside air being allowed to circulate through this 40 cast iron conduit 8. This is accomplished by adjusting the amount of air which would tend to pass from 1 to 2 in its relation to the amount of air which would tend to pass from 3 to 4, so that the friction of these amounts of air in the conduit will exactly counterbalance any tendency of the air to be carried in or out of the cast iron conduit 8 at its ends. 7

The condenser which I use is constructed as follows. It, is a rectangular vessel having an open top forming a water pan 5 and a lower section 6, through or in which arev formed zig zag conduits 7, so that the air and vapors which pass into the condenser through the pipes 14 follow the course indi cated by the arrows, the divisions insuring along conduit in contact with the bottom of the water pan, which water pan acts as con- 1 denser. This pan'is keptfull of water but is not supplied with any overflow. It is filled with water by means of the pipe 8 and is regulated to keep the tank full by means of the float valve 9. This "water is allowed to heat to its boiling point or even to boil, so that. the condenser is vprevented; from tion, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is in addition to this has the eflect of subjectreaching a point above. the boilin point of" water, which is the,condition des redwhen v the separating salt used is such as bromid of-z antimony, which becomes liquid at'93 (1, but whose point of volatilization 1s much higher. Were the condenser kept cool and at a low point oftemperature, the material would solidify in it and make handling of the same awkward. I

With tlie arrangement described, the material is maintained as a liquid and passes out through the pipe 11 as a liquid. Th1S pipe 11 may be at any point on the bottom of the condenser and may extend to the tank to return the liquid recovered to the body of so separating liquid. The material passing through chute 10 maybetreated in'a similar manner to remove, recover and return its carried 'salt. The "above described apparatus is illus- 85 trated, described and claimed in an application filed by me February 2nd, 1910, Serial No. 541,545, and is not herein claimed.

Having now fully described my inven-,

1. The process of separating solids of different specificgravities, consisting in liquefying anhydrous antimonybromid, passing the mixture to be separated therethrough the portions and separately discharglng which float and those which sink.

2. The process of separating solids of dif- 'ferent specific gravities consisting in lique-' .fying anhydrous antimony bromid,

passing the mixture to be separated therethrough,- and separately discharging the portions which float and those which sink, vaporizingthe liquid carried by the separated constituents, condensing the same, and returning said solution to the original separating liquid.

, 3; The process. of separating solids of dif-.

ferent specific gravities, consisting in passing the mixture to be separated through a bath consisting of an anhydrous volatiliz-- able'salt in a liquid condition and separately dischargin the portions which float and those whic sink, and volatilizing any salt carried off by the separated constituents,the volatilizing point of the salt being below the vaporizing point of the constituents to be separated.

4:. The process of separating solids of different specific gravities, consisting in passing. the mixture to be separated through a bath consistingpf an anhydrous volatilizable salt in a fused condition and separately discharging the portions which float and. those which sink, and volatilizing any salt carried ofi by the separated constituents, the volatilizing point of the salt being below the vaporizing point of the constituents to be separated. v

5. The process of separating solids of dif-".

ferent specific gravities, c'onsistingin passing the mixture to be separated. through a bath consisting of a volatile anhydrous salt maintained in a fused condition, separately discharging the portions which float and those which sink, vaporizing from each discharged constituent the liquid carried thereby, condensing said liquid and returning the same to the'initial separating liquid.

V 6. The process of separating solids of different specific gravities, consisting in pass- I ing the mixture to be separated througha bath consisting of a volatile anhydrous salt in a liquid condition, separately discharging the portions which float and those which stituent the liquid carried thereby, condensin said liquid, and returning the same to the initial separating liquid. v p In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set in hand, at Philadelphia, on this 26th day 0 November, 1909.

FRANCIS I. DU PONT. Witnesses:

M. M. HAMILTON, A. M. URIAN.

15 sink, vaporizing'from each discharged con- 

